This article covers the Purchase equipment step only. For the onboarding ticket and its other tasks, see The onboarding ticket. To configure the other steps, see Automate your onboardings.
Availability: the Automatic option is rolling out to accounts. If you only see Manual in the step, agentic onboarding isn’t enabled for your organization yet — contact your Primo representative.
Before you start
Primo AI runs the step from two published policies and from the hire’s own record. It never fills a gap with a default of its own.- Equipment policy, published — decides what the hire is entitled to, by role, team, seniority, and country.
- Purchasing policy, published — decides how an order is authorized: approvals, where it ships, which billing profile pays, which suppliers, and when equipment work should start (for example, “handle equipment 30 days before the start date”).
- A personal email address on the employee, synced from your HR system. It is where Primo AI writes to the new hire.
- A start date, plus the hire’s work location, employment type, job, and country on their profile.
Both policies live in Orders & Shipments > Settings. Until both are published, Automatic can’t be saved: the step shows a warning and Save stays disabled.
Configure the step
1
Go to Employees > Settings
Open the Onboarding tab and click the Purchase equipment row.
2
Include the step
Include this step in onboarding — turn it off when hires bring their own device. The row then reads Skip, and onboarding tickets get no equipment task at all.
3
Choose the autonomy
- Automatic — Primo AI handles the task end to end according to your policies.
- Manual — you run the intake and the order; Primo only opens the task.
4
Set the default assignee
The Default assignee owns the task and answers when Primo needs a decision on this step. It is always a human admin — Primo AI is never the owner.
5
Set the timing (Manual only)
Scheduling sets the default date offered when you run the step from the ticket, and Due date how many days before the start date the task is due. In Automatic, timing comes from your Purchasing policy instead.
6
Save
In Automatic, the step also shows a What it reads block with the live status of both policies, and a shortcut to edit them.
How Primo AI runs the step
On an onboarding ticket, Primo AI is added as the agent on the Purchase equipment task, which carries no due date; the Default assignee stays its owner — the policy, not a countdown, decides when it acts. The onboarding stepper skips the equipment step, since the ticket is where the step happens.1
Wait for the purchasing window
Your Purchasing policy says when equipment work starts. Before that date, Primo AI does nothing on the step. With no timing rule anywhere, it acts straight away. If honoring the window would make on-time delivery impossible, it says so instead of starting silently.
2
Check the step isn't already done
An order already linked to the ticket, or a device already assigned, ends the run.
3
Read the policies and the hire's record
Primo AI reads your policies and the hire’s record, and asks the owner for anything missing — a field on the profile, a personal email address, a rule the policy doesn’t cover.
4
Check stock first
Unassigned devices and accessories that genuinely fit this hire under the Equipment policy win over buying new. Fit comes before saving: an ill-suited device in stock is not a saving.
5
Compose one proposal
Only what the Equipment policy allows, with every option already decided — memory, storage, color, and the local keyboard layout pre-selected. Primo AI only proposes what can actually ship, and ranks candidates by arrival before the start date, then zero-touch support, then price.
6
Agree the setup with the new hire
The proposal goes out as a public comment on the ticket, which reaches the hire by email at their personal address. They can accept it or say what they’d prefer.
7
Ask you to approve
Always, before anything is bought or assigned — one internal comment to the owner with the product, its options, the price, the destination, the delivery time, and anything outside policy flagged plainly. Silence is never an approval.
8
Order and close the step
Right before acting, Primo AI re-checks that the item is still buyable at the delivery time announced, places the order or assigns the stock device, links it to the ticket, and marks the task done.
Who sees what
- Public comments are for the new hire and reach them by email. Prices never appear there.
- Internal comments are for the owner: approvals, prices, policy gaps, blockers.
- Reminders follow one cadence: one reminder two working days after an unanswered question, then the ticket’s assignee is told. Primo AI never chases twice on the same question.
What Primo AI never does
- Order or assign anything without an explicit go-ahead from the owner on the ticket — even squarely within policy, even a stock item that costs nothing.
- Order outside your policies, or invent a rule when a policy is silent.
- Place a second order for the same onboarding.
- Put a price in a message to the new hire.
- Propose something out of stock, coming soon, or discontinued.
- Send the hire a draft: anything still open with the owner is settled before they hear from Primo at all.
When the step comes back to you
In every case the step comes back with the diagnosis on the ticket, not as a fresh unknown.